Injections Discussed During Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine Meeting

Originally published: 2018-08-07

SEE RECENT UPDATE on this story CLICK HERE

Florida Chiropractic Association Requests Board's Help

It's no secret that the Florida Chiropractic Association is bent on expanding the scope of practice in Florida wherever it can. They were recently successful in getting chiropractic tied to "primary care" and they were successful a couple of years ago in getting the Board to drop a package of legislative proposals that the FCA vehemently opposed.

Now, during the May 18, 2018 Board meeting, Ron Watson, the Lobbyist for the Florida Chiropractic Association, asked the Florida Board with their help in the FCA's Legislative efforts for the upcoming year which will include adding language to authorize injections for nutrition. Watkins and the FCA shared the language with the board and asked for assitance from the board with this issue.

CLICK HERE to review the minutes.

And based on history - whatever the FCA wants from the Florida Board - the FCA gets.

Back in June 2015 the changes the FCA got nixed included proposals to deal with the treatment of animals by chiropractors, removal of outdated language making graduation from a school accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) mandatory to gain licensure in the state, removal of statutory obstacles for graduates of foreign chiropractic programs to gain licensure in the state, and removal of the term “medicine” to describe the practice of chiropractic among other items.

The vote to keep “medicine” in the statute came on the heels of a decision by the Florida Board to turn over its jurisprudence exam to the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners despite the recommendation of the State of Florida to do away with the exam.

The Florida Chiropractic Association has a formidable lobbying arm funded with the tens of millions of dollars the FCA makes through in person live continuing education events. Events which the FCA also lobbied to keep as the status quo when major discussions occured to allow online CE were effectively shut down.

CLICK HERE for more on the history

All of this comes on the heels of the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission, a United States Supreme Court case on the scope of immunity from US antitrust law. The Supreme Court held that a state occupational licensing board that was primarily composed of persons active in the market it regulates has immunity from antitrust law only when it is actively supervised by the state.

Despite this decision by the United States Supreme Court the Florida Board seems to believe they are immune from action related to it based on their repeated decisions as active market players and several potential conflicts of interests that may not have been reported per the Florida Ethics Commission Rules.